an inspired meal planner

It's a great week, when you have your meals for the following week planned out several days before your trip to the grocery store. It seemed so easy after I was inspired by an article I read about a 1400-Calorie Meal Plan and Skeleton.  It's part of Team Beach Body (aka P90X).  Though I didn't realize it until I came across another blog that had the same meal plan that linked Climb Michi's Ladder.  PDF They have 5 tiers of foods and each food is labeled (fat) (protein) and (carb).  The ideal is to only eat what's in the top two tiers for a perfect diet, but we all know that's not always possible. 

Anyways, what I loved about the meal plan was how simple it seemed.  Each meal is labeled with the following labels (carb) (dairy) (protein) and (fruit), but no specific portion sizes.  I kept this in mind and then adjusted my meal plan template and schedule that I created earlier this week and then added a grocery list and meal prep day schedule.  The hope is that this will help me be more consistent with my eating times and meals. 

Here is a sneak peak at my meal planner:

Backside where I've added my grocery list:

I'll look more into the ladder and other foods on the list, but for now I'm pretty happy with my current list. I'll need to calculate my calories for each meal so I know if I'm really under the 1400, plus if I'm getting sufficient enough protein, carb and fat to match my activity needs.

Goals:

Bed by 9pm!!!!

Calculate my protein, Carb and Fat for my meal plan and assure I'm in the right direction

Work on a inspiration board with all my yearly goals and add a section for monthly goals.

Eat Clean Diet Principals and printables!

I'm excited to finally bring you printable 4x6 Eat Clean Guidelines and separate lists of acceptable Proteins, Complex Carbohydrates (both Starchy and High Water), and Healthy Fats that you can store in your meal plan binder to help simplify your meal planning while your on the Eat Clean Diet: Stripped Plan.  You'll be able to incorporate more foods once you are working on your maintenance stage. 

 You can download these babies from my Eating Clean page, which will take you to my scribd.com account to download them.

Cute New Sites that Inspire:
I also came across fitnessista and The Chic Life blog today.  I recommend taking some time to visit their site.  I loved fitnessista's inspiration board and I'm currently working on one for myself to add to my inspiration wall.  I also really like viewing the recipes on The Chic Life

it's the beginning of something wonderful

Today is my very first post for my new blog 'Under the Apple Tree' and I'm looking forward to watching how it blossoms with each new post and new friend it brings.

I'm still under construction so please be patient as I get things set up.

I'll be updating new pages with:
* recipes + downloadable 4x6 cards for easy printing and filing
* exercise flash cards (for easy routine planning)
*  learn about the benefits of different foods and download cards:
    - what's the best spices to help boost your metabolism
    - best foods for calcium, fiber, protein
 
and I have more ideas and plans coming.  Hopefully I can keep up with everything in my head.
Once I get things up and rolling I'll be updating about once a week, but I'm not sure exactly how long that will take.  If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to let me know.

also, at some point I'll be having someone design the blog so it has a more pleasing appeal and better
matches my logo, which was designed recently by Marie.